Game Review: Bomb Fusion (ZX Spectrum, Mastertronic / PAL Developments)

Gunpowder Plot with a Difference

Terrorists have planted bombs in the nuclear processing plant.  You play as ex super hero (ex after the ‘Boris affair’) and must save the plant (and possibly the Northern Hemisphere) from destruction.

Bomb Fusion is a platform game with a twist.  You can fall from any height without losing a life and if you get to the bottom of the screen, you appear directly at the top of the screen and continue falling until you land on another platform.

You start each level from a closed yellow door and your task being to collect the required number of used fuel capsules that are being fired vertically out of a pipe.  The amount you need is displayed at the bottom of the screen next to the number of lives you have.

By touching the fuel capsules, they act as if they are magnetised to you.  They then follow your movements (just behind you).  Just imagine The Pied Piper (but without a flute!) and but instead of rats, it’s round fuel pods behind you!  All you need to do is move above the storage box and the pods fall into it safely.

Once you’ve put all the required fuel pods into the storage box, the door will change colour to white.  By returning to the door, you’ll make your escape.  Here, you’ll see a screen where you wander across to the next level.

Yellow Balloid and Timebombs

Also moving around the platforms and falling down the screen is the yellow Balloid.  This is your nemesis as it does two bad things.

Firstly, if you have any fuel pods, it will effectively demagnetise them and they will instead start to follow him.  You’ll therefore need to get close and re-touch the fuel pods so they start following you again.

The Balloid is also very radioactive.  Any collision boosts the meter dangerously upwards, you’ve guessed it, if the radiation meter goes too high, you’ll lose a life.

On every screen, you’ll see bombs (after all, the giveaway is in the title!)  Any of these will randomly start with its fuse being lit and this starts a countdown from 9 in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.  You can stop the bomb fizzling away by jumping or moving into it.  This will, however, start with another one being lit elsewhere on the screen.

It’s Getting Rather Hectic

What with all this going on, there’s also some jumps which require a springboard to jump even higher up the screen.  Usually there are two options to get the defuse the higher bombs.  One is to jump on these and the other is to fall through the bottom of the screen and re-appear at the top, whilst gravity takes it course.  You can still move left and right whilst jumping or falling and this is a great advantage.

You are also given a time bonus for how quickly you complete the level and this counts down rather quickly in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen.

Playability

There couldn’t be any simpler and the controls are purely left, right and jump.  I found that the jumps didn’t have to be spot-on all the time and this keeps the playability high and flowing nicely.  This more importantly, makes it’s fun and always runs at the same speed.

There are no processor issues slowing down the game with lots of objects are moving around beautifully.

Graphics and Sound

The loading screen looks great.  Boris’ has worried face and a fuse lit bomb is shown with some platforms behind him.  This graphically shows what the game really is about.  The logo is clear too and the loading raster scans in the border load in black and blue.

The graphics look neat and the animation is all smooth.  The way the fuel pods follow you and even fall in the same way, are spot-on.

With all the colour though, it does come at some price.  Yes, you will see colour clash in places and do blend into what is nearby.  This is most evident when moving over the doorway or when anything passes with the Balloid.  Smartly, though the programmers made Boris, the Balloid and fuel capsules all yellow so it’s not quite so obvious.

The opening screen presentation is rather good with a rotating message in a barrel but what is missing here is some music.  Bearing in mind, this game was released in 1989, a 128K AY tune wouldn’t have gone amiss here.  Throughout the game, there are some short sound effects, sounding like popping bubbles and the bomb noise clearly is that.

Boom!  Shake The Room

If the bombs have counted down, there is one inevitable outcome.  This is an explosion and the screen will flash yellow for a few moments, resulting in you losing a life.

Humour

From the off, you know that this game is going to have some humour in it.

Bomb Fusion, starts with you driving towards the Sellerscale Nuclear Power Plant in your customised C5!  The inlay instructions explain that it has fuel injection and go faster stripes and to go for it!!!

Should you lose all your lives, you are effectively thrown out of the room and land harshly on the ground near your trusty C5 with Game Over near the top middle.

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